A/N: This chapter is sort of short. lol The next one though starts to get even more interesting. :)! Enjoy the 2nd chapter~
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All Gwen felt was her head connecting with the lower cabinet and the rest of her hitting the cold floor; she could swear that was blood too trickling down the back of her neck. She groaned a little and she felt the insane pain again and heard the raccoon screech something terrible and then she lost consciousness.

When she did wake up, it was morning and the sunlight from her kitchen window was bleeding into the room onto her face. She was in pain, she could feel it. She groaned and slowly dragged herself into a sitting position. Her hand went to her throbbing head. When she removed her hand and looked at it, thick, nasty, half dried blood was covering her four fingers. She didn't scream, in fear of scaring the holy hell out her eighty year old neighbor. She turned around and the wine was stained into the tile. The blood from her head accompanying it. Small raccoon prints were in it and led to the door that was now closed. At least it had escaped without injury—and an apple.

Up onto her feet she got however slowly it was. She refused to tell a soul she cried as she pulled herself up with the handle of the fridge. She needed to go take a look at her head.

Still feeling quite woozy she made her way up the stairs and into the bathroom. She flipped on the light and looked at herself in the mirror and just about screamed. The blood from her head had not only ran down her neck but was all over her face in neat, little, dried rivers. She needed a shower. She reached for the shower curtain and pulled it back and that was when she did scream, and loudly.

BITCH.

It was written in big, bold bloody letters. Gwen could feel her throat closing up on her again. For not having asthma, she sure was having plenty of what felt like it. She backed out of the bathroom and hit the hallway wall with her back.

Ding-dong.

No. Her doorbell.
"Gwen? Gwen dear, I heard you scream, are you alright?"
It was her neighbor. Mrs. Trudy Goodwill. A widow, and had nothing better to do than to play Mom to Gwen when Trent wasn't there to take care of her. Quickly Gwen grabbed a towel and wrapped her head up, to make it look like she'd just taken a shower. She wet the hand towel and scrubbed her face some to get the dried blood off and ran down stairs.

She opened the door.
"Hi, Mrs. Goodwill." Gwen smiled.
"I heard you scream, dear—is everything okay?"
"Oh yeah, everything's fine. There was this huge spider in the bathroom when I got done taking my shower and it just surprised me." She said laughing. The old women nodded.
"Ah, I understand. I used to have those things happen to me—but ol Tom was always there to handle it for me. Must be hard with Trent being gone so often?"
"Yeah—I guess so." She chuckled some. "Well, Mrs. Goodwill, I would love to talk more, but I'll be late for work if I don't hurry."
"Oh, of course dear. You have a good day." She smiled and walked away.

Gwen shut the door, pulled the towel off and slid down against the back of the door. Work? Yeah right. With this huge gash on her head, she wasn't going anywhere. She swallowed some. But—maybe it would be better to go. After all she managed the music store she worked at. She could wear whatever she wanted and look how she wanted. She'd just put on a bandana—a band one. Then it wouldn't look suspicious.

After Gwen actually did take a shower and wash away the bloody curse word, she dressed. Yes, she knew she should have called Trent—called the police…called 911—hell called SOMEONE, but she didn't. It was bad enough she'd called Courtney.

She grabbed her purse from the chair by her bed and walked downstairs and picked her cell from the couch and turned it back on.

One Missed Call – Courtney

"FUCK." Gwen blurted. She clicked "Done."

One New Voicemail.

Gwen clicked it and held the phone to her ear as she yanked her keys out of her purse and walked outside and locked the front door after she closed it.

"Hey, Gwen. It's Courtney. What was it that you needed? I'm sorry I didn't get your call. I'm in DC this week, so if I don't call you back again it means there's just a time difference and I'm probably sleeping! Call me back though! Bye!"

Gwen groaned. She was in DC? Well—actually that was a good thing. DC was far away from where she was—and where he was. She snapped her phone shut and shoved it in her pocket. Then adjusted her bandana some and walked to her black Mitsubishi Eclipse and got in. Before she did anything though (after starting the car of course.) she pumped her brakes some to make sure they would respond, and then backed out of her driveway and slammed on the brakes and felt herself screech to a stop. Okay, good. Nothing to worry about there. She smiled and continued on her way to work.